This invention relates to a protective control and stabilization system for high performance watercraft.
Certain types of high performance motor boats are driven at very high speeds on the order of sixty miles an hour or more frequently in relatively rough water such as found in the ocean. In such situations, the boat may leave the water and move a substantial distance through the air for a substantial period of time. The crew of the boat may include a person whose task it is to shut off the engine or engines of the boat when the propeller is out of the water in order to protect the engine and the power train from excessive rotational speed and from excessive strain from the propeller being re-submerged and abruptly slowed down while the propeller is rotating at an excessive rate.
In some cases, the high performance watercraft is provided with two or more engines and respective propellers for each engine. Also, particularly in the case of the inexperienced driver or crew, the take off is unexpected, resulting in no throttle reduction by the person charged with accomplishing the throttle reduction. Even the experienced driver and crew is unable to consistently prevent a temporary overrev condition, particularly when only one of the two propellers comes out of the water and the other remains submerged.
Another problem present in the operation of high speed watercraft is the control of the attitude of the watercraft as it leaves and enters the water. In presently available high speed watercraft, the driver does not have control of the boat once it leaves the water and does not regain control of the boat until it enters the water again. The attitude of the boat is normally determined by the manner in which the boat leaves the water. One problem experienced is called "stuffing" and refers to a condition wherein the nose of the boat comes into the water, causing the water to flow up over the boat into the cockpit, in many cases causing fatality.
Another problem is a "nose high" attitude when the boat enters the water. Such a condition causes the craft to land back on its transom and then to rock violently forward onto the nose, causing a stuffing accident or loss of control of the watercraft. It is desirable that means be provided for preventing and controlling such problems.